New York - Having forsaken the traditional reindeer, a wind-surfing Santa Claus was arrested by United States Border Patrol guards for illegally entering the US from Canada.

Ontario businessman John Fulton was picked up on Sunday after completing the crossing of the Niagara River between Fort Erie, Canada, and Buffalo, New York.

Fulton, 42, has donned a Santa Claus outfit and made the river crossing on a windsurf board every Christmas for the past 18 years, but this time the goodwill of the US Immigration and Naturalisation Service apparently ran out.

Fulton displayed no bitterness at being arrested, saying he understood the border security situation had changed in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

'I'm right behind what they did'

"Basically I entered the country illegally," he told the CNN news network.

On reaching the other side of the river, Fulton was quickly taken in charge by the Border Patrol officers who made him take off his Santa suit, patted him down, put him into a patrol car and drove off with him.

"I'm right behind what they did," Fulton said. "Post 9/11, this is the world we live in. For them, the publicity stunt is good:

'We're not even going to let Santa Claus in the country illegally'."

Fulton said he had the officials add to his paperwork that the "subject inadvertently landed in the US while performing Surfing Santa duties."

The businessman makes the annual crossing to raise money for a non-profit organisation for the homeless, and a support group for troubled teenagers - both based in Ontario.

"They were real nice guys," said Fulton of the border guards.

"They took me back to their headquarters there, photographed me and fingerprinted me. I felt like an illegal alien. I would have rather had my Santa suit on." - Sapa-AFP